Heinrich Best

On her latest release, Flora Fabri interprets the highly praised sonatas and a fantasy by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf on a "tangent grand". The ingenious invention of this grand piano for the time around 1770 is an intermediate form of clavichord, harpsichord and fortepiano. When a key is struck, a wooden stick with a leather head is struck against the string from below, and a second stick dampens the string again. Wolf […] belongs not only […] among our classical and best composers in any subject, but is also original. More recognition seems hardly possible from the perspective of the Sturm und Drang: The introduction that Ernst Ludwig Gerber chooses in 1792 to his encyclopedia article on Ernst Wilhelm Wolf paints in a few words the picture of an original genius whose artistic uniqueness dominates a maximum of professional expertise. He was a pupil of Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. In Gotha he became acquainted with the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Carl Heinrich Graun, which strongly influenced him. Above all, he appreciated the works of Bach, with whom he had a lifelong friendship. At the University of Jena he was mainly engaged in music, and he was given the direction of the Collegium musicum, which gave him the opportunity to perform his own compositions.

Stimmwerck - "Gyri Gyri Gaga" - German Renaissance Songs of Lust & Life
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 303 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Christophorus # CHR 77311 | Country/Year: Germany 2009
Genre: Folk, Classical | Style: Renaissance, Secular

…The mischievous “I’ll show you mine” Cover, perhaps best stored spine outwards, should not be allowed to detract from a musical treat.

Josquin Desprez - The Hilliard Ensemble - Motets Et Chansons
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 192 MB | Full Artwork: 67 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: EMI # CDC 7 49209 2 | Country/Year: Germany 1987, 1984
Genre: Classical | Style: Renaissance

…Josquin is widely considered by music scholars to be the first master of the high Renaissance style of polyphonic vocal music that was emerging during his lifetime…

A collection of the very best of Bartoli's treasured recordings of musical delights and discoveries of the 17th and 18th century. Featuring two previously unreleased world premiere recordings of forgotten jewels by Leonardo Vinci and Agostino Steffani. With guest appearances from Philippe Jaroussky, June Anderson, Franco Fagioli and Sol Gabetta.

Wilhelm Kempff (1895–1991), one of the great piano masters, receives an exceptional tribute from the label with which he was most closely associated. This is a beautiful, limited-edition 35-CD box of Kempff’s complete solo repertoire on DG and Decca Classics. It includes the stereo Beethoven sonata cycle, the Schubert sonata cycle, generous anthologies of Bach, Brahms, Liszt, Schubert, and Schumann – plus Chopin and Baroque. There are many rarities, not readily available at present.